Duryea ends Beaufort County Council election challenge

Beaufort County Council candidate Dan Duryea will not appeal his residency challenge to the South Carolina Election Commission, laying to rest any doubts that opponent Cynthia Bensch will represent District 7 starting January after the local board unanimously sided with her.

Duryea says a “well-connected attorney” in Columbia told him a reversal at the state commission of a 5-0 decision at the local level wouldn’t likely play out in his favor.

“We’ve decided that it would be futile to pursue this matter any further as we are not going to be able to change the system by ourselves,” he said, pointing to issues with an electoral process that bounced more than 200 primary candidates earlier this year and perceived flaws with residency definitions.

Duryea, a Republican, was one of those candidates swept from primaries after the S.C. Supreme Court reaffirmed that the law requires candidates to file an Intention of Candidacy form at the same time they file a financial disclosure and with the same official, despite an Election Commission rule requiring electronic submission of the Statement of Economic Interest. Critics charged current law unfairly advantages incumbents, who already have financial disclosures on file. Bensch had a current statement on file as an appointed state election commissioner who’s term ended before her County Council run.

At the heart of last week’s Beaufort County Board of Elections hearing over Bensch’s residency in District 7 was the definition of a “domicile,” defined under state law as a “fixed home where he has an intention of returning when he is absent.”

Bensch first registered in her candidacy paperwork with the Republican Party at 1 Crabtree Lane in Rosehill, a rental within District 7 that she said she was forced to leave over the summer when the owner decided to sell it. She said she then contacted election board director Scott Marshall about the steps needed to maintain District 7 residency, ultimately declaring residency at the home of her son in District 7 at 29 Martingale West while splitting time in another rental just outside the district with her husband.

During the hearing Bensch presented a rental agreement showing yet another move to Hampton Hall, which falls within District 7. She presented many pieces of documentation sanctioned under state law to establish her 29 Martingale West residency while arguing she hadn’t abandoned her first home of her own accord.

Duryea, who manages the Belfair residential development, argues the domicile requirements should be tightened and paperwork laws should be changed.

“If — after the fiasco in Beaufort last week and with the overall election climate in our state in 2012 — if no one believes that we desperately need election and ethics reform in the state of South Carolina they must have blinders on,” Duryea said.

Bensch said she never doubted her qualifications after consulting her own knowledge as a former commissioner along with Marshall, and she’s now looking forward.

“I appreciate the opportunity to serve Beaufort County in District 7 and look forward to working with the new chairman and distinguished Council members after Jan. 2 on the challenges ahead,” she said.